For The Love Of Meat
by Follow-The-Firefly
Summary: Aang tries to make everyone live without meat. Is this a wise thought with a group of benders? Rated T for Teen


**Disclaimer: If I owned Avatar, Zuko's scar wouldn't be there.**

**It's Mika-chan! This is my first Avatar story. I've almost finished watching the first season, so I know a _little_ bit of what's going on. Plus the series finale. man, that was odd...ah well. let the deadly tale begin!**

It was a nice summer night and the gang was hanging out on an island in the Earth Nation, resting from the day's journey. The benders were practicing their bending, whilst Sokka and Suki were stargazing. Zuko was practicing his firebending with the campfire and  
Aang and Katara were having a water duel. Toph was trying to imagine what the battle would look like, but it wasn't working so well. Suddenly, Aang stopped his bending, allowing the water to drop to the ground. Katara, confused by the Avatar's actions, stopped as well.

"What's wrong, Aang?" the waterbender asked.

"You know what I think?" Aang said to the group at large.

"Probably lots of things." Toph said.

"Do we want to know about this?" Zuko asked hesitantly.

"I should think so!" Aang created a ball of air and jumped on it.

"Does it have anything to do with meat?" Sokka asked, earning himself a punch from Suki.

"Actually, yes." Aang said.

"Told you." Sokka stuck his tongue out at Suki.

"You never told me anything." Suki rolled her eyes.

"So what is it?" Zuko tried to bring the conversation back on track.

"You guys know how I'm a vegetarian, right?" Aang began.

"No, I never knew…" Sokka's words dripped with sarcasm.

"So I was thinking that everyone else could be one too!" Aang proclaimed.

After this, all of the teens plus Appa and Momo simply stared at the Avatar. Zuko, who was still firebending when this proclamation was made, had accidentally allowed the flames to reach several feet high. Startled, the firebender attempted to calm the blaze, but Katara had to dump some water on the fire.

"Thanks, Katara." Zuko said. "But now we have no heat!"

"You're from the Fire Nation, aren't you?" Katara raised her eyebrows.

"Good point." Zuko shrugged.

"What are you talking about, Aang?!" Sokka demanded. "How can I be a vegetarian?!"

"Yeah, Sokka loves meat _way_ too much." Toph said.

"It's not that hard." Aang said.

"That's because you've never known how _wonderful _meat is!" Sokka exclaimed.

"Give me a break." Suki rocked her eyes.

"It can't be that hard, can it?" Katara shrugged.

"I dunno…" Toph shook her head. "It might not work."

"Especially with Sokka who can't live a day without meat." Zuko smiled.

"Hey, are you making fun of me, Zuko?" Sokka glared at the scarred firebender.

"Maybe I am." Zuko apparently hadn't lost the competitive side in him when he joined forces with the Avatar.

"Then it's a challenge!" Aang exclaimed.

"Huh?" Sokka looked at the airbender in confusion.

"We'll see who can go the longest without meat." Aang explained as Momo jumped onto his shoulder and started to chirp.

"But what about you, Aang?" Toph wanted to know.

"Toph, he doesn't eat meat anyway." Suki told the smaller girl.

"Oh, right." Toph nodded.

"So how long do we do this?" Zuko queried.

"As long as we can." Aang grinned.

"I'll never make it…" Sokka moaned.

"You could always give up." Zuko smiled maliciously.

"There's no_ way _I'm going to loose to you!" Sokka snapped, eyes fixed on the firebender.

"But what do we have to eat besides meat?" Katara wondered.

"Yeah, most of our food is meat." Suki nodded.

"We'll go gather berries and stuff like that." Aang said, stroking the lemur on the ear. "Hey, we can eat Appa's food if we need to."

"I'd die before eating that." Sokka grimaced as he looked at the enormous pile of hay in front of the flying bison.

"So who's going first?" Aang asked.

"First for what?" Katara frowned.

"Food hunting." Aang said simply.

"Not me." Sokka shook his head.

"Ok…" Aang thought for a moment before saying, "Sokka and Zuko."

"I just said no!" Sokka exclaimed.

"If I have to, then fine." Zuko stood and walked toward the forest, leaving Sokka to race behind him.

* * *

"You and your big mouth, Zuko…" Sokka glared at the firebender with great dislike.

"It's not that bad, Sokka." Zuko sighed. "It's just a few days without meat. I'm sure you can survive."

"No, I can't!" Sokka exclaimed, throwing some berries into a bag. "I _live_ for meat!"

"Don't let Suki hear you say that." Zuko said with a small smile.

"What's _that_ supposed to mean?" Sokka gazed sceptically at the scarred firebender.

"Didn't you tell Suki that you live for her?" Zuko questioned.

"Yeah, and I do." Sokka said.

"So how can you live for meat and your girlfriend at the same time?" Zuko pointed out as he tossed some nuts into the bag.

"Well, I live for meat food-wise." Sokka said.

"That still makes no sense." Zuko shook his head. "Let's just get this over with. I would like to firebend some more tonight."

"You've been firebending for three hours!" Sokka exclaimed. "How much more can you last?"

"For a while, actually." Zuko shrugged, throwing random berries into the bag.

"Lucky us…" Sokka rolled his eyes.

"I heard that." Zuko glared at the water tribe warrior.

* * *

A few days later, everyone was on edge from the lack of meat. Everyone but Aang, that is. The Avatar was spinning around on his airball whilst everyone else simply picked fights with each other. Zuko had burned just about everyone and Katara was using her healing powers almost every five minutes. Toph had created several landslides and Katara had caused several tsunamis to occur. Sokka and Suki were simply battling in martial arts, dodging the fire from Zuko, water from Katara and bits of dirt and rock from Toph. Appa and Momo had noticed a definite change in the teens, but decided to stay out of their way.

"This is ridiculous." Aang said sadly a few days later when everyone was around the campfire. "We're at each other's throats."

"Well, not literally." Sokka said.

"Would you like it to be?" Suki pulled out her dagger and placed it toward Sokka's throat.

"No, that's ok." Sokka said, whipping out his boomerang and holding it inches above her head.

"Maybe we should stop this." Katara said as she walked to the nearby stream to waterbend. "Look at us. Sokka's given everyone a black eye, Toph's trapped Momo under rocks and Zuko's burned everyone at least once."

"And what about you, Katara?" Zuko's eyes fell on the waterbender.

"What _about _me?" Katara grew defensive.

"What about the damage you've done to us?" Zuko said.

"What have I done?" Katara returned Zuko's glare.

"You've almost drowned Momo and Toph, swept me up in a riptide, froze Appa in a mini-glacier and we've had to rebuild camp at least ten times because of your tsunamis." Zuko rambled off.

"To mention a few." Sokka said.

"I'm not that bad, ok?!" Katara was obviously a _little _ticked off.

"Can we all just get along?" Aang sighed, though he knew that this was futile.

"No, I don't think we can, Aang." Suki said.

"This _is_ getting ridiculous." Toph agreed.

"So are you saying we should call it off?" Katara frowned.

"That would be best." Aang said.

"So what now?" Zuko crossed his arms in front of his chest in an angry fashion. "We're all on edge and we have no meat."

"We can kill Appa!" Sokka exclaimed.

Instantaneously, Aang ran over to the giant bison and threw his arms around him.

"Relax, Aang." Suki smiled. "Sokka's not going to kill Appa."

"Then what about Momo?" Sokka offered.

"No!" Aang wailed.

"Quit messing with Aang, Sokka." Katara glared at her older brother.

"How about Sokka and Katara go fishing and we eat the fish?" Toph offered.

"We're going to eat raw fish?" Sokka's face read confusion.

"Zuko's going to use his firebending to cook them." Toph nodded.

"I've never cooked with my firebending." Zuko traced his scar with his finger. "I might burn them."

"I'll eat burnt fish if I have to." Sokka said.

"Wow, Sokka." Katara said. "You _must_ be desperate."

"So Appa and Momo are going to be ok?" Aang was still beside his beloved bison.

"Yes, Aang, Appa's going to live." Zuko said.

"Momo too." Toph smiled.

* * *

"Are you almost done yet, Zuko?!"

An hour and a half later, Katara and Sokka had captured a very large amount of fish. So much, in fact, that Zuko had three fires going. However, the firebender wasn't used to cooking fish and had no idea what he was doing.

"Zuko, it's on fire!" Aang yelped, pointing to one of the fish that was indeed engulfed in flames.

Katara rushed over and used her waterbending to put out the fire on the fish. After the fire was out, she carefully picked up the fish and threw it back in the water.

"Do you know what you're doing, Zuko?" Suki examined a fish on the stake above the fire.

"No, actually, I don't." Zuko shook his head. "So unless you have any ideas…"

"I don't know how to cook either." Suki shrugged.

"Let's just eat them now, huh?" Sokka couldn't take much more of the torture of smelling cooking fish.

"They're almost done, Sokka." Aang assured him.

"How would you know?" Sokka's knuckles clenched the boomerang in his hand.

"Because they look done to me." The Avatar announced.

"Finally." Zuko said.

So a few minutes later, the fish were being devoured and rather rapidly, in fact. Sokka had finished three fish in the time it took Toph to eat one.

"Don't eat so fast, Sokka." Katara told her brother.

"Oh, who cares?" Sokka stuck his tongue out at her.

"So how long did we go?" Zuko asked Aang.

"Almost a week." Aang nodded, munching on his berries.

"Really?" Toph was surprised. "That long, huh?"

"It seemed like a million years." Sokka said dramatically.

"You complain if you go an hour without food." Katara rolled her eyes.

"Do not!" Sokka protested.

"At least you all tried it!" Aang smiled.

"Maybe not if Zuko hadn't challenged me." Sokka glared at the firebender.

"I didn't challenge you to anything." Zuko pointed out.

"That's what it seemed like to me." Sokka crossed his arms in front of his chest.

"You're paranoid, Sokka." Toph smiled.

"Isn't he, though?" Suki grinned as well.

"So what now?" Katara asked.

"We train for the fight with the Fire Lord." Aang said.

"What fun." Zuko rolled his eyes. "Fighting with my father. Just what I've always wanted to do."

"You're kidding, right?" Sokka raised his eyebrows.

"Yes!" Zuko exclaimed.

Sokka and Zuko continued their argument for a while, but Aang wasn't listening. He just couldn't believe that everyone had gone almost a week without meat. He didn't think Sokka would last a day, but apparently he was wrong. But they were back to eating meat again. Ah well. At least they'd tried it.

**was everyone in character? I think i did a good job with Sokka, but Zuko was hard! ah well. review? thanks for reading!**


End file.
